Fenugreek cauliflower and dal

     Sometimes I wonder what the point of these 660 Curries posts is. Every time I make something from the book that I love, I want to post it so that I remember it and can make it again. But, seriously, I think I've loved almost everything I've made from the book. I think flipping open a page at random has just as good a chance of ending up with a good dish, as does sticking with the tried-and-true. But I digress...

This meal was great. Here you see, at the front, Fenugreek-Perfumed Cauliflower, and at the back, a dal of Yellow Split Peas with Tomato and Chiles. 

The cauliflower curry was supposed to include ivy gourds, but the book suggested cucumber as a replacement and that's what I used. Cooked cucumbers are a revelation -- I know the idea takes some getting used to, but they're really good. The curry also used up the half of my fenugreek crop that didn't get eaten by snails. In the end, I couldn't really taste the fenugreek greens distinctly, but maybe they added something because apart from them, this curry has a pretty simple list of ingredients, and yet it tasted surprisingly good.

The dal was also simple and delicious: the split peas are cooked (I did them in the pressure cooker) and then you add a tarka with the usual suspects (coriander, cumin, chile, garlic, turmeric) and tomato. I don't usually put tomato in my dals, but it added a really nice tang.

Thai green curry

Sometimes I feel sorry for our boring meals, the ones that don't make it onto the blog. So this post goes out to all the Thai curries we've been eating recently: so wonderful, so easy, and so easy to take for granted.

Here you see a green curry with veggies (bok choy, Japanese pumpkin, onion, peas), alongside pineapple fried rice with grated carrot. Usually some tofu gets thrown into the curry too, but not this time. I use Maesri brand green curry paste. Oh, and now that we have Asian food stores aplenty, and I've become reacquainted with kaffir lime leaves, I've resolved never to make a green curry again without adding some. They're that good! (Any recipe that says you can replace kaffir lime leaves with regular lime juice or zest is lying to you.)